Winifred Breckenridge Rasulallah Muhammad

February 23, 1999

Winifred Breckenridge Rasulallah Muhammad, 33, of Chicago died Wednesday of cancer in her mother's South Side home. The actress and playwright was born in McComb, Miss. As a child she would often produce a play based on the biblical story of the Creation. She earned a degree in acting and playwriting from Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, R.I., and went on to act in several episodes of "Spenser: For Hire" and to write several plays, including "To One Who is Hungry Bitter is Sweet." The plays often reflected her belief that everyone should be treated equally, said her father, Jackie B. Breckenridge. "She was a very spiritual person. . . . She tried to express life and how life is and how life should be," he said. "She was a person of love, and she wanted to see people loving each other." In 1992, she joined the Nation of Islam and worked for its publications. Two years later, she co-founded the Chicago theatrical company Hamachis Rising Productions Inc. and served as its artistic director. "She was very strong in her beliefs and her ways," Breckenridge said. "She wasn't a follower, she was a leader." Other survivors include a son, Malik; a daughter, Sattia; her mother, Carolyn Bostic; three brothers, Jackie and Anthony Breckenridge and Michael Morris; and a grandmother, Alyene Quinn. A funeral service was held Monday.